Writing a Persuasive Essay

Now that we have spent several weeks studying argument and persuasion, for our next project you will be writing a persuasive essay discussing your point of view on an issue related to the Constitutional rights of high school students. You will need to choose an issue, formulate a claim, support your claim with evidence, address an opposing view and provide a counterargument.

Your first step is to select a topic to write about. Below are a collection of articles and editorials concerning several topics related to the Constitutional rights of high school students. Skim and scan through the articles that relate to the topic(s) that are the most interesting to you. You will be using the information from these articles to define your issue, formulate a claim and support it with evidence. In certain instances, you may want to conduct additional research.

General/Background Info
5 Supreme Court Cases Every Teen Should Know

Juveniles and the Criminal Justice System
Frontline: Juvenile Justice 
Trying Youths as Adults Hurts Families and Tax Payers, But Not Crime
Should Juvenile Criminals Be Sentenced Like Adults?
Opinion: Kids Should Never Be Tried as Adults
Adult Punishments Should be an Option
"Adult Crime, Adult Time" pg. 218, Contemporary Voices Text Book

Students and Free Speech at School  
Student Speech Rights - This article is mainly about free speech for students on college campuses, but you can ask yourself whether these arguments should also apply to high school students or not.
 Frequently Asked Questions About Student Free Speech
"Boobie Bracelets" - A New Symbol of Student Free Speech
Breast Reduction: The "I Heart Boobies" Case Could Decide the Fate of Student Free Speech
Student Speech: No
Bong Hits 4 Jesus Case Limits Students Rights
Bong Hits 4 Jesus Ruling Raises Questions About Students' Free Speech Rights

 Students, Free Speech and the Internet
Technology & the Law
For Students, a Right to Be Mean Online?
Suit Blends Internet, Free Speech, School
Supreme Court to Consider Educators' Response to Cyber-Bullying
**NEW - Should Bullies be Treated as Criminals?
**NEW - Bullied to death in American Schools

Once you know what topic you want to write about, you need to focus on a specific issue within that topic. Your issue should be phrased in the form of a question. The answer to that question will be your claim.
Ex. Topic: Punishments for Criminal Offenders
       Issue: Should shame be used as a way to punish criminals?
       Claim: Shame is a cheap, effective and humane punishment for non-violent criminal offenders.

After you have selected your topic and developed your issue, please complete the following FORM